Jonathan Farrugia wrote:

>i was having a discussion with a friend about auto insurance and accidents
>involving insurance claims.  my friend then began to explain their
>understanding of auto insurance accident claims in europe to me.  they
>were saying for example if i was in europe driving my vanagon and i was
>involved in an accident that the standard way to handle the situation of
>an non-injury accident would be this.  the two parties would get out
>insurance supplied forms that they are supposed to keep in their glove
>boxes.  each would then write down their version of events and submit it
>to the insurance company in order to make a claim.  in this scenario there
>are no police or others called, i guess its just kind of a self service
>deal.
>
>
>
Our system here in the USA regarding accidents is adversarial. It keeps
lawyers employed. There are many aspects of our culture that are based
on adversarial attitudes. This cultural adversarial approach often stabs
us in the foot, and has contributed, though not totally responsible for,
the mess we have in our liability laws that is costing everyone so much
money these days. In the old days it was "My ox gored your ox, so I will
sell my ox and give you half of the proceeds". This day and age it's
"Your ox gored my ox and I want your house, your lands, your property,
your savings, all your cash, your livelyhood for the next 20 years, your
wife and the heads of all your children!!"

It is not an easy system, and when it gets into the hands of a jury, you
might as well take a gun to your head with a single bullet, because
Russian Roulette is what you get with juries. The results are unpredictable.

My $0.02 this morning.

I'm cranked over a run-in with my insurance company. The whole concept
of insurance this morning ticks me off. There needs to be a better
system, but as long as there is profiteering involed, it will never happen.

OK, my $0.04

Thanks for the opportunity to vent!!!!

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver